Wisconsin Intrastate ELD Rules and Hours of Service

A state that adopts the federal safety rules for its intrastate carriers usually adopts the driving limits with them. Wisconsin adopted the rules and then wrote three exceptions, and one of the three carries a date on its face. Section Trans 327.03 (10) (a) 3. of the Wisconsin Administrative Code says the record-of-duty-status paragraphs of the federal rule do not apply to operation on or before March 31, 2025. Read that sentence forward and it is a state compliance date. April 1, 2025 is the day an intrastate Wisconsin carrier had to be recording duty status the federal way, on a device.

The other two exceptions take the federal driving clock out and put Wisconsin's own in. A property-carrying intrastate driver here gets 12 hours of driving inside a 16-hour on-duty ceiling, and 70 or 80 hours of weekly duty, against the federal 11, 14, and 60 or 70. Both halves land on the same piece of hardware, which is why this page exists: a device left on the federal ruleset will flag a legal Wisconsin hour and will miss the state ceiling entirely.

What Wisconsin adopted, and the three lines it did not

Chapter Trans 327 is the state's intrastate motor carrier safety chapter, and s. Trans 327.03 is the adoption section. It provides that the federal motor carrier safety regulations it lists are adopted by the department and shall be enforced in relation to those carriers, drivers or vehicles which operate in intrastate commerce in the same manner as though the regulations were set out in full in the chapter. The list runs 49 CFR parts 390, 391, 392, 393, 396, 397, 382, 40 and 395, plus part 385 subpart C. Several of those entries carry named exceptions of their own.

Subsection (10) (a) is the hours of service entry. It adopts 49 CFR part 395, hours of service of drivers, except as follows, and then prints three exceptions:

1. 49 CFR 395.3 (a) (2) and (3) are not adopted.
2. 49 CFR 395.3 (b) is not adopted.
3. 49 CFR 395.8 (a) (1) (i) through (iv) does not apply to operation on or before March 31, 2025.

That is the whole carve-out. Everything else in part 395 runs at its federal text for an intrastate Wisconsin driver, including 49 CFR 395.1 with the 150 air-mile short-haul exception, 395.3 (a) (1) requiring 10 consecutive hours off duty before driving, 395.3 (c) allowing a 7-day or 8-day period to end with 34 or more consecutive hours off duty, 395.5 for passenger-carrying vehicles, and the subpart B specifications a registered device has to meet.

The text is newer than most state adoptions. The chapter's own history note records that CR 22-051 repealed and recreated subsection (10), Register February 2024 No. 818, effective 3-1-24, and the chapter as published carries Register November 2024 No. 827.

The dated line, and the paragraph range that does not exist

Exception 3 is the unusual one. The paragraphs it names, 49 CFR 395.8 (a) (1), are the record-of-duty-status methods, and (a) (1) (i) is the sentence requiring a motor carrier operating commercial motor vehicles to install and require each of its drivers to use an electronic logging device to record duty status in accordance with subpart B of part 395. Federal law put a date on that sentence, December 18, 2017. Wisconsin suspended it for intrastate operation and set its own, by suspending it only through March 31, 2025.

One footnote for anyone reading the rule text next to the federal one. The state names paragraphs (i) through (iv). The current federal section carries (a) (1) (i), (a) (1) (ii) with subparagraphs (A) and (B), and (a) (1) (iii). There is no (a) (1) (iv) to point at. The range as written covers every record-of-duty-status method the federal paragraph contains, so the effect is not in doubt, but a carrier comparing the two documents side by side should expect the mismatch rather than assume a bad copy.

What has not changed is the exception list. The four ways to keep a paper log sit in 49 CFR 395.8 (a) (1) (ii) (A): a driver completing a record of duty status on not more than 8 days within any 30-day period, two driveaway-towaway situations, and a vehicle manufactured before model year 2000 as reflected in the vehicle identification number on the registration. Those are federal, and Wisconsin adds none of its own. The national ELD mandate page walks through each, and the FMCSA registered device list is where a device is confirmed as still registered.

The clock, side by side

Subsection (10) (b) is the replacement. It provides that no driver may drive a property-carrying vehicle for more than 12 hours following 10 consecutive hours off duty; for any period after having been on duty for 16 hours following 10 consecutive hours off duty; after having been on duty for 70 hours in any period of 7 consecutive days; or after having been on duty for 80 hours in any period of 8 consecutive days.

Two details in that table are easy to read past. The first is the weekly pair. Federal 49 CFR 395.3 (b) makes 60-in-7 and 70-in-8 alternatives, picked by whether the employing motor carrier operates commercial motor vehicles every day of the week. Wisconsin's subsection (10) (b) 3. and 4. state 70-in-7 and 80-in-8 flatly, with no such condition attached, which is how the federal variance provision at 49 CFR 350.305 (d) (2) phrases the permission the state is using.

The second is that none of these numbers is a Wisconsin invention. Section 350.305 (d) (1) lets a state allow a 12-hour driving limit provided a driver is not permitted to drive after having been on duty more than 16 hours, and (d) (2) lets it allow driving prohibitions at 70 hours in 7 consecutive days or 80 hours in 8 consecutive days. Wisconsin took the ceiling of what the federal compatibility rule permits and stopped there. The federal baseline these are measured against is on the hours of service page.

The 30-minute break is not in the state text

This is the row most likely to catch a fleet out. Exception 1 declines 49 CFR 395.3 (a) (3), and that paragraph is titled driving time and interruptions of driving periods. It holds two things: (i) the 11-hour driving limit, and (ii) the rule that driving is not permitted if more than 8 hours of driving time have passed without at least a consecutive 30-minute interruption in driving status. Wisconsin declined the paragraph whole, and the four prohibitions it wrote in place at subsection (10) (b) are driving and on-duty ceilings. None of them is a break.

Two practical consequences follow. A device configured to a Wisconsin intrastate ruleset should not be counting a break the state text does not require, and a device configured to the federal interstate ruleset will count one that is not there. Ask the vendor which of the two it has loaded, by name, before the first load rather than after the first inspection. And a driver who takes any interstate run in the week is back on the federal rule for that run, break included, which the section on commerce below covers.

Who the rule reaches, and who it lets go

Scope here runs on Wisconsin statutory definitions, not federal ones. Section Trans 327.01 provides that words and phrases defined in s. 340.01, Stats., and 49 CFR 390.5 have the same meaning in the chapter, and that where a term is defined in both, the s. 340.01 definition applies, except s. 340.01 (8), Stats. Section Trans 327.09 (4) (b) then names that subsection expressly, and lifts the hours rule off any driver operating a motor vehicle that is not a commercial motor vehicle in s. 340.01 (8).

So the floor for the hours rule is the state statute. Under s. 340.01 (8) a commercial motor vehicle is a motor vehicle designed or used to transport passengers or property with any one of these characteristics:

• a single vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 or more pounds, or a registered weight or actual gross weight of more than 26,000 pounds;
• a combination vehicle with a gross combination weight rating, registered weight or actual gross weight of 26,001 or more pounds inclusive of a towed unit with a gross vehicle weight rating, registered weight or actual gross weight of more than 10,000 pounds;
• a vehicle designed to transport or actually transporting the driver and 15 or more passengers; or
• a vehicle transporting hazardous materials requiring placarding, or any quantity of a material listed as a select agent or toxin under 42 CFR 73.

That definition is the vehicle code's own rather than a safety-rule definition. Section 340.01 opens by providing that its words and phrases carry the designated meanings in s. 23.33 and chs. 340 to 349 and 351 unless a different meaning is expressly provided or the context clearly indicates a different meaning, so the same commercial motor vehicle test is the starting point in the registration, size and weight, and driver licensing chapters as well. The licensing side of the same vehicle sits on the Wisconsin CDL page.

Taking that floor is a federal permission, not a Wisconsin invention. Section 350.305 (a) lets a state exempt an intrastate commercial motor vehicle from all or part of its safety rules where the vehicle does not reach 11,801 kilograms (26,001 pounds), unless it is placarded for hazardous materials or is designed or used to carry 16 or more people including the driver. New Jersey declined that permission and starts its intrastate commercial motor vehicle definition at 10,001 pounds instead, which the New Jersey intrastate ELD page walks through. Wisconsin took it. Same structure, opposite answer, and a fleet running in both states cannot carry one policy across the line.

Do not read 26,001 pounds as a general Wisconsin threshold, though. It scopes this rule and not the registration side: the Wisconsin USDOT number trigger sits at 10,001 pounds, which the Wisconsin DOT number page covers with its own sources. A 15,000-pound straight truck running only inside Wisconsin can need the number and sit outside the state hours rule at the same time.

The rest of s. Trans 327.09 (4) takes subsection (10) off drivers of authorized emergency vehicles as defined in s. 340.01 (3), Stats., and off drivers of tow trucks as defined in s. 340.01 (67n), Stats., when operating at the request of a law enforcement officer. The tow truck exemption is conditional on that request, not on the vehicle. Section Trans 327.09 (7) goes wider and lifts the whole chapter off any farm truck or dual purpose farm truck combined with a semitrailer or farm trailer, and off any vehicle combined with a horse trailer, where the combination's gross combination weight rating, registered weight and actual gross weight all stay at or under 26,000 pounds, the combination includes no commercial motor vehicle described in s. 340.01 (8) (c) or (d), and it operates solely in intrastate commerce. Section Trans 327.09 (1) separately lifts s. Trans 327.03 off a school bus driver when the bus is being used for authorized educational or extracurricular school-related activities.

Passenger carriers are on a different clock

Subsection (10) (b) opens with the words no driver may drive a property-carrying vehicle. It says nothing about passengers, and 49 CFR 395.5, the federal maximum driving time for passenger-carrying vehicles, is not among the chapter's exceptions. An intrastate Wisconsin passenger carrier therefore runs the federal passenger clock as written: 10 hours driving following 8 consecutive hours off duty, no driving after 15 hours on duty following 8 consecutive hours off duty, and 60 hours in 7 consecutive days or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days depending on whether the carrier operates every day of the week.

That matters to a Wisconsin PC number holder in particular, because the same operator's property work and passenger work sit on different limits. The Wisconsin intrastate authority page covers the LC and PC credentials themselves.

Short haul still ends at 14 hours

Section 395.1 is untouched, which sets up the same trap the extra hours create everywhere they exist. Paragraph (e) (1) releases a driver from 49 CFR 395.8 and 395.11 where the driver operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location, returns to it and is released from work within 14 consecutive hours, and has at least 10 consecutive hours off duty separating each 14 hours on duty, with the carrier keeping time records for six months.

Set that 14 against Wisconsin's 16. A local fleet leaning on short haul for its paperwork relief and then using hours 15 and 16 has lost the exception for that day, and that day needs a record of duty status like any other. The two extra hours the state grants are the exact two hours that cost the paper release.

Which clock a run is actually on

All of this is written for intrastate commerce, and s. Trans 327.01 hands the definition of that term to 49 CFR 390.5. Interstate commerce there includes trade, traffic or transportation between two places in a State as part of trade, traffic or transportation originating or terminating outside the State or the United States. Intrastate commerce is whatever that definition does not describe.

So a trailer moving from a Milwaukee rail ramp to an Eau Claire warehouse can be an interstate run, even with Wisconsin addresses at both ends, if the freight came from outside the state or is headed out of it. Interstate runs sit on 11, 14, and 60 or 70, with the 30-minute break. The state variance never reaches them. Carriers that mix both kinds of work in a week are the ones who get this wrong, and the mix is what the driver's device has to be told about. The state-by-state intrastate authority comparison is where the rest of that picture sits.

What this looks like at roadside

Two sections close the loop. Section Trans 327.03 (7) authorizes every traffic officer and state patrol inspector employed under the authority of s. 110.07, Stats., to declare vehicles and drivers out of service in accordance with the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, except that subsection (10) shall be used to determine the maximum number of hours allowed to drive after coming on duty. The state numbers, not the federal ones, are what an intrastate driver is measured against.

Section Trans 327.07 (2) then provides that s. Trans 327.03 (1), (2), (3), (6), (8) and (10) shall be enforced under the provisions of ch. 194, Stats. That is the same chapter of the statutes that issues the Local Cartage certificate, so the hours rule and the intrastate authority answer to one enforcement chapter. Section Trans 327.11 adds that no demerit points may be assessed for violations of the regulations adopted in the chapter. That is a narrow relief and not a discount: it speaks to demerit points only, and says nothing about the out-of-service order, the ch. 194 penalty, or what an hours violation does to a safety score.

FAQ

Does Wisconsin require ELDs for intrastate drivers?

Yes, since April 1, 2025. Wis. Adm. Code s. Trans 327.03 (10) (a) adopts 49 CFR part 395 for intrastate operation and lists three exceptions. The third says 49 CFR 395.8 (a) (1) (i) through (iv) does not apply to operation on or before March 31, 2025. Those are the record-of-duty-status paragraphs that carry the electronic logging device requirement, so the suspension ran out and the requirement has applied to Wisconsin intrastate operation since the next day. The only routes to a paper log are the four federal cases in 49 CFR 395.8 (a) (1) (ii) (A), which Wisconsin neither adds to nor subtracts from.

How many hours can a Wisconsin intrastate driver drive?

Twelve, and the day ends at 16. Wis. Adm. Code s. Trans 327.03 (10) (b) provides that no driver may drive a property-carrying vehicle for more than 12 hours following 10 consecutive hours off duty, or for any period after having been on duty for 16 hours following 10 consecutive hours off duty, or after having been on duty for 70 hours in any period of 7 consecutive days, or after having been on duty for 80 hours in any period of 8 consecutive days. All four numbers differ from the federal interstate 11, 14, 60 and 70.

What is exempt from the Wisconsin intrastate hours of service rule?

Wis. Adm. Code s. Trans 327.09 (4) takes s. Trans 327.03 (10) off three classes of driver: drivers of authorized emergency vehicles as defined in s. 340.01 (3), Stats., drivers who operate motor vehicles that are not defined as a commercial motor vehicle in s. 340.01 (8), Stats., and drivers of tow trucks as defined in s. 340.01 (67n), Stats., operating at the request of a law enforcement officer. Section Trans 327.09 (7) separately lifts the whole chapter off farm truck and horse trailer combinations at or under 26,000 pounds operated solely in intrastate commerce.